Coach Les Miles (center) and LSU players celebrate their 12-10 victory over Auburn on Saturday.

The only thing uglier than former No. 2 LSU's 12-10 win over unranked and now 1-3 Auburn on Saturday night is LSU's schedule.

After dipping their toes in the Southeastern Conference pool at Auburn and finding the water almost a tad too unpleasant, LSU returns to the friendly confines of its stadium and its easiest non-conference schedule in the BCS era.

You can almost feel it in the air. You can almost slice the tension with a knife. Yes, it's Towson week. But like the win over Auburn, ugly may be in the eye of the beholder.

The near disaster at Auburn revealed some scars that need to be powdered. That's a good thing. LSU can correct its overall sloppy play, pass blocking and try to eliminate the lack of discipline that led to four personal fouls before it ventures into the deeper end of the pool at Florida a week from Saturday ? if it survives Towson.

LSU accumulated 351 yards against Auburn - 182 rushing and 169 passing. But there were three occasions that LSU ventured inside the Auburn 16-yard line and came away with just three points out of a possible 21.

"We were sloppy," LSU coach Les Miles said. "It's interesting, we practice the ability not to have penalties, but what happens is is guys lose their poise. This is a tremendous lesson for us, which is something that we'll certainly be able to teach from in a very aggressive manner."

The Tigers (4-0, 1-0 SEC) have quite a bit to tidy up. So maybe it's a good thing they just have to play Towson this week - one more blasted scrimmage before the real season starts. One more scrimmage for quarterback Zach Mettenberger to learn that one must catch the snap first, then drop back.

Backup center Elliott Porter may have been in the game at the time for the briefly injured P.J. Lonergan, but Porter put the ball right in Mettenberger's hands at the Auburn 2-yard line. Just like Mettenberger put a beautifully thrown deep ball right in the hands of Odell Beckham Jr., early in the third quarter, and Beckham bobbled it before letting the defender slap it away.

"It's better to get this off at the beginning of the year than at the back end of the year," LSU tailback Spencer Ware said. "At the back end of the year, we need to be at our best."

Exactly. A team does not want to score zero points in the last four quarters of a BCS national championship game or only three points over the last three quarters, which was the case Saturday.

"It was frustrating. It is frustrating," LSU offensive coordinator Greg Studrawa said. "When you get down there in the red zone, you've got to execute. When you move the ball up and down the field, you've got to get touchdowns."

Still, in the end LSU had more mettle than its opponent when it counted, which has been the beautiful story of this team for three straight seasons now. And Saturday night that happened on the road in a very loud and difficult place to play.

"Any time you come down to Auburn and you get a victory on the road, it's a great win," Miles said.

"The win really showed the character of this team," Mettenberger said. "It got tough late, but we were able to come out of this one with the win."

At crunch time, LSU played like the underdog - with Mettenberer throwing a daring pass far across the field and risking an interception for a first down that ended the game. And Auburn played like the cautious favorite, choosing to run on third-and-12 from its 43 with five minutes to go in the game and trailing 12-10. On fourth and five from near midfield, Auburn coach Gene Chizik punted and he never saw the ball again with enough time for a legitimate chance to win the game.

Chizik dared only to lose, and that's what happened.

Studrawa, with the approval of Miles, chose to throw on third-and-4 from their 33-yard line with under three minutes to play with a quarterback starting his first SEC game and first road game of his career. And this was no quick, safe route. Mettenberger rolled wide right and threw way left. Ware caught it, broke a tackle and gained 33 yards. Game over.

"No doubt about it, we could've played it safe and ran some clock and punted and still won with defense," Studrawa said. "But I said, 'Hey listen, if we get a first down, we got the game. We can move this thing."

Miles dared to win it then, and that's what happened.

That is a lovely way to prepare for much more difficult SEC games down the line when between ugly and pretty, there is no distinction.